Flames Tear Through Midway-Area Fitness Center

SAN DIEGO, CA — An intense fire tore through a Midway-area fitness center at daybreak Thursday, prompting a major road closure and an evacuation of part of a nearby hotel but causing no reported injuries.

The blaze at Victory MMA & Fitness in the 3600 block of Midway Drive erupted for unknown reasons shortly before 6:30 a.m., according to police and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Crews arrived to find flames and heavy smoke coming out of the second floor of the building.

Authorities cleared people out of a section of nearby Wyndham Garden San Diego and shut down a stretch of Midway Drive while firefighters attacked the blaze, SDFRD Battalion Chief Mike Liversedge told OnSceneTV.

Liversedge praised the response of the personnel, who kept the fire from spreading beyond the gymnasium building and had the flames under control within about 20 minutes.

"If you look behind me to the hotel — they did a very good job of keeping fire from getting into that hotel," he said.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

— City News Service